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a height in the air, and then descending with tremulous wings and outspread tail, and uttering a 

 prolonged trilling note, very pleasant to the ear. 



This is one of the few species that appear to thrive and increase in the cultivated districts ; 

 and in localities where formerly it was only tolerably plentiful, it has kept pace with the progress of 



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colonization, becoming every year more abundant. It is never met with in the woods ; and I have 

 observed that in the open country it is rarely seen to alight on a green tree or shrub, although 

 often poising itself on the slender stalks of the Phormium tenax or on a bunch of fern. I have 

 occasionally seen it dusting itself after the manner of some gallinaceous birds, rolling in the dust 

 with evident delight, and then shaking its feathers, probably in order to free the body of parasitic 

 insects. 



The breeding-season of the New-Zealand Pipit extends from October to February or March, 

 and, like the other members of the same group, it appears to rear two broods ; for I have seen 

 well-fledged young ones in November, while nests containing eggs are often met with as late in 

 the season as January or the early part of February. The nest is composed of dry grass and other 

 fibrous substances loosely put together, and is always placed on the ground, generally in a horse's 

 footprint or in some natural depression, and under shelter of a tussock or clump of rushes. The 

 eggs are usually four in number, rather ovoido-conical in shape, measuring -9 of an inch by '65, 

 and marked over the entire surface with numerous spots or freckles of dark grey on a paler or 

 ashy ground. Among the examples in the Canterbury Museum there are some darker ones, 

 blotched and mottled with purplish brown. 



The call of the yoimg resembles the sharp note of the Silver-eye (Zosterops lateralis) ; and 

 when engaged in feeding them, the parent bird displays an unusual degree of caution in the 

 presence of an intruder, alighting ten or fifteen yards from the nest, and loitering about for a 

 considerable time with the food in its bill before attempting to deliver it. 



The natives catch this bird by means of a running noose at the end of a long stick ; and 

 there are various modes of trapping it, very generally known and appreciated among colonial 



school boys. 



I have noticed that this species is very subject to a disease of the foot, which takes the form 



of a large irregular swelling. This may probably result from accidental burns ; for I have often 

 observed these birds alight on ground over which a fire had recently passed, leaving a light surface 

 of smouldering ashes, and rise again immediately in evident pain. 



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